Hi. Right now, you might be wondering about which route to take.
It’s an evolving world full of many moving parts and new introduced movements of change (like people putting up their startups and Shark tank ideas), and still many withstanding institutions such as the 9-5, a career working for multinationals.
I know it’s hard and difficult. Life is hard and difficult.
They ask you to follow your passion when it can be inconvenient if you don’t have enough resources, and you think you still don’t know enough.
But I would like to share a thing or two about how to navigate this mad world we live in.
See, you are more than just a job or a career. Your life is a journey towards you. The highest expression of who you are, Oprah said. That’s the goal.
That’s my goal. Hopefully yours too.
But for now, you can’t get far without making lots of mistakes. A severe volume of mistakes.
I know, I know. The schools you grew up in ask you to make less of it.
But life is not meant to be lived with too much caution. You can’t fly far when you haven’t fallen or risked your wings.
If it is meant to be lived with caution, then why were we given the permission to live this glorious life, when we only need to park our boats at the shore and never sail?
You don’t need to just breathe peacefully. I want you to experience more ways of breathing. Hard breathing. Excited breathing. The loss of it. All the ways to breathe.
For the first 5 years after college, I implore you to sail far. Get away from your home and get lost.
Home always stays. But your life is only one.
I did it all. Made mistakes. Lost money. Cried buckets. Started stuff. Failed stuff. A lot of stuff. Went to New York to get lost. Tried whatever I thought I could put my hands in.
My life the past 10 years (I’m currently 30) wasn’t easy.
But it was a ride.
I saw places, observed people, saw different ways how people eat their breakfast, helped others.
You need to be exposed to do things for one great reason: to teach you about life.
Life is a great teacher. It’s meant to be learned all-in.
All the experiences from your travel and your mistakes will give you all the experiences you need to feel.
What do you truly care about?
What do you truly believe in?
What do you not tolerate?
Don’t think you need to be a titan at 25. You don’t need to be a titan on anything.
You just have to be the person you’re meant to be. Your life, your wild life experiences the first five (or ten) years after college will shatter your limiting beliefs, your old stories to yourself and make you realize…
…that the world is big but not totally big.
…that people can be bad but not totally bad.
…that you can risk it all but you can also gain it all.
Life is not that bad. It’s actually a bipolar world to be honest with you. Ups and downs, peaceful and rocky. And each has something to teach you.
Life will not withhold the truth, my friend. All you need is patience.
Be patient in embracing every truth that it unveils through heartbreaks, through failures, through the loss of friends, through your loneliest moments.
Don’t worry. Your Future can wait. I promise.
For now, dive in to life with two feet and two hands. Get it dirty. Get bruised.
For what stories will you tell us when you keep on staying safe?
What stories will your life be when you are just the same?
Who will you be when you are just the same?
With Healed Bruises,
Ralph
Ralph Layco is a 30 year old, award-winning marketer and entrepreneur. He co-founded Macho Mucho, HairFood Co., and lately, an ambitious project titled New Bold University, his attempt to reimagine education. He loves drinking coffee and likes to travel in his free time.
